Cold to Freezing
by Charmed Lassie
Summary: One shot. After Billy's death Nikki knows who'll show up. Slash.


A/N: Another one-shot, set after 'Cop Killer Pt 2'. Again, slash.

* * *

She wouldn't have done it had Diane asked her not to. She wouldn't have charged up the stairs of a tower block, heading towards a killer, if the woman she loved was pleading with her. But it hadn't been Diane down there, had it? Doug had been the one pleading with her. Doug- her husband. 

It was well past the end of the shift. She'd dined Indian style with Doug but he was now resting lopsidedly on the sofa. Even if she'd wanted to she doubted she could sleep. The images in her head were all bloody ones, images of death and pain. Shaking them would be impossible to do, even if she felt it was right to do so. It wasn't proper, was it, for her to sleep while a young copper of twenty-two lay dead on a slab somewhere? Doug would berate her, if he were awake. But he wasn't, and her companion was the bottom of a glass.

Her phone vibrated and flashed on the table. Before she lifted it up she knew who was calling. Leaving the living-room, she closed the door softly behind her and put the phone to her ear. 'Hello?'

'Why aren't you asleep?'

'Well, you obviously didn't think I'd be asleep, if you called.'

There was a pause. 'I'm outside.'

It didn't surprise her all that much. Not even stopping to pick up a jacket from the coat rack in the hallway she left the house quietly. Leaning against her garden wall was a pleasing and familiar figure. 'You shouldn't be here,' she warned, approaching with her arms crossed.

Diane shrugged her agreement then indicated they should move into her nearby car. When they were settled the PC questioned, in a measured tone, 'Are you okay?'

'I've had better days. Better weeks as a matter of fact.'

'I won't say I can imagine.'

'Much appreciated.' She closed her eyes briefly as Diane's fingers intertwined with her own. 'I was an idiot.'

Diane let out a small laugh. 'Yep.'

'I just wanted to…'

'Get him,' the PC interrupted. 'I know. And you did it. But… For God's sake, Nikki, you could've died!'

'Look, I had to do it!'

'What, for Doug?' Diane queried contemptuously.

'For Billy.'

After a few seconds of silence her lover began speaking again; her eyes forward. 'I was in CAD the whole time. I heard you'd been abducted then I hear five minutes later that you've only run after the guy. You wouldn't listen to Manson or Heaton or even… You know, I would've settled for him getting you out of there. I would've got on the radio myself if I thought it would've helped.'

Nikki squeezed Diane's hand, not wanting to state outright that it would have stopped her dead in her tracks. 'I'm sorry.'

'You don't get it, do you?' Diane asked a moment later. 'For you this is some sordid little affair, something to occupy you when you're at work or something. I don't know, maybe you're that used to having a partner at work you can't do without it. But,' she went on before Nikki could speak. 'It isn't like that for me. I mean, I've the least to lose but I'm the one…'

When she trailed off, Nikki prompted, 'Go on.'

'It's nothing.'

'No, go on.'

'I can't… I can't get you out of my head,' she managed eventually. 'This was supposed to be a fling.'

'A conquest,' Nikki supplied knowingly.

Briefly, a smile flittered across Diane's face. 'Yeah, exactly. It isn't like that anymore and then you go and nearly get yourself killed and I'm stuck on the sidelines and no one cares because no one knows how the thought of you being carved up might affect me. You're my sergeant, that's all.'

Nikki again squeezed her hand. 'You're more than that.'

'Go on then. What am I?'

She faltered. 'Well, you're…'

'See?' Diane muttered in part triumph, part loathing.

Disregarding their placement in front of her house, Nikki kissed her PC passionately, surprised to find she was trembling afterwards. 'That's what you are to me.'

Diane closed her eyes and let out her breath. 'I can't do this anymore. I'm not sitting at home with a few cans thinking about you and…'

'He's my husband! The father of my kids. I can't do this to them.'

'Yeah, I know. So I'll make it easy for you.' Diane shrugged her hand off. 'You know, it's been fun. But I just… Well, I don't think it's working is it?'

Nikki shook her head. 'Oh, don't do this.'

'I'm sorry. You'd better get back to your husband.'

No way. We're talking about this.'

'You always want a discussion, don't you?' Diane started the engine ferociously. 'Not this time.'

'Why now? Why today?' she demanded. 'You don't think it's been bad enough today as it is?'

'I'm sorry!'

'Stop saying that! Talk to me.'

If she wasn't mistaken, her lover of six months was fighting tears. 'Get out.'

'Di, let me…'

'Get out!'

The car squealed away as soon as the door closed. Wrapping her arms around her body in a battle against the evening chill, she watched it go then very slowly made her way back into the house.

Doug was munching on the remains of the Indian when she entered the living room. 'Have you been out?'

She cleared her throat. 'Just for some air.'

'How is it? The air, I mean.'

She mustered a smile. 'Frosty.'


End file.
